Talleyrand rung a bell, and Hauterive presented himself, with a large bundle of papers. The pretended original letters of Mr. Drake were handed about, with the commentaries of the minister and his secretary. Their heads heated with wine, it was not difficult to influence their minds, or to mislead their judgment, and they exclaimed, as in a chorus, C'est abominable! Cela fait fremir! Talleyrand took advantage of their situation, as well as of their indiscretion. "I am glad, gentlemen," said he," and shall not fail to inform the First Consul of your unanimous sentiments on this disagreeable subject; but verbal expressions are not sufficient in an affair of such great consequence. I have orders to demand your written declarations, which, after what you have already expressed, you cannot hesitate about sending to me to night, that they may accompany the denunciation which the First Consul dispatches within some few hours, to all the courts on the Continent. You would much please the First Consul, were you to write as near as possible according to the for mula which my secretary has drawn up. It states nothing either against convenance, or against the customs of sovereigns, or etiquettes of courts; and I am certain, is also perfectly congenial with your individual fee ings." A silence of some moments now followed, (as all the diplomatists were rather taken by surprise, with regard to a written declaration) which the Swedish ambassador, Baron Ehrenswards, interrupted by saying, "that though he personally might have no objection to sign such a declaration, he must demand some time to consider whether he had a right to write in the name of his Sovereign, without his orders, on a subject still unknown to him." This remark made the Austrian ambassador, Count de Cobentzel, propose a private consultation among the members of the foreign diplomatic corps, at one of their hotels, to which the Russian charge d'affaires, d'Oubril, who was not at the dinner party, was invited to assist.

They met accordingly, at the hotel de Montmorency, rue de Lille, occupied by Count de Cobentzel; but they came to no other unanimous determination, than that of answering a written communication of Talleyrand, by a written note, according as every one judged most proper, and prudent and corresponding with the supposed sentiments of his Sovereign.

As all this official correspondence has been published in England, you may, upon reading the notes presented by Baron de Dreyer, and Mr. Livingston,* the neutral ambassadors of Denmark and America, form some tolerably just idea of Talleyrand's formula. Their impolitic servility was blamed even by the other members of the diplomatic corps.

Livingston, you know, and perhaps have not to learn, though a staunch republican in America, was the most abject courtier in France: and though a violent defender of liberty and equality on the other side of the Atlantic, no man bowed lower to usurpation, or revered despotism more in Europe. Without talents, and almost without education, he thinks intrigues negotiations, and conceives that policy and cupidity are synonymous. He was called here "the courier of Talleyrand," on account of his voyages to England, and his journeys to Holland; where this minister sent him to intrigue, with less ceremony than one of his secret agents. He acknowledged that no government was more liberal, and no nation more free, than the British; but he hated the one, as much as he abused the other; and he did not conceal sentiments that made him always so welcome to Buonaparte and Talleyrand. Never over nice in the choice of his companions, Arthur O'Connor and other Irish traitors and vagabonds, used his house as their own; so much so, that when he invited other ambassadors to dine with him, they, before they accepted the invitation, made a condition, that no outlaws or adventurers should be of the party.

In your youth, Baron de Dreyer was an ambassador from the court of Copenhagen to that of St. James. He has since been in the same capacity to the courts of St. Petersburgh and Madrid. Born a Norwegian, of a poor and obscure family, he owes his advancement to his own talents; but these, though they have procured him rank, have left him without a fortune. When he came here in June, 1797, from Spain, he brought a mistress with

i

* In consequence of this conduct, Livingston was recalled by hs government, and lives now in obscurity and disgrace in America. To console him, however, in his misfortune, Buonaparte, on his departure, presented him with his portrait, enamelled on the lid of a snuff-box, set round with diamonds, and valued at one thousand Louis d'ors.

him, and several children he had had by her, during his residence in that country. He also kept an English mistress, some thirty years ago in London, by whom he had a son, M. Guillaumeau, who is now his secretary. Thus encumbered, and thus situated, at the age of seventy, it is no surprise if he strives to die at his post; and that fear to offend Buonaparte and Talleyrand sometimes gets the better of his prudence.

In Denmark, as well as in all other Continental States, the pensions of diplomatic invalids are more scanty than those of military ones; and totally iusufficient for a man, who, during nearly half a century, has accustumed himself to a certain style of life, and to expenses requisite to represent his Prince with dignity. No wonder, therefore, that Baron de Dreyer prefers Paris to Copenhagen, and that the cunning Talleyrand takes advantage of this preference.

It was reported here among our foreign diplomatists, that the English minister in Denmark, complained of the contents of Baron de Dreyer's note, concerning Mr. Drake's correspondence; and that the Danish prime minister, Count de Bernstorff, wrote to him in consequence, by the order of the Prince Royal, a severe reprimand. This act of political justice is, however, denied by him, under pretence that the cabinet of Copenhagen has laid it down as an invariable rule, never to reprimand, but always to displace those of its agents with whom it has reason to be discontented. Should this be the case, no Sovereign in Europe is better served by his representatives than his Danish Majesty, because no one seldomer changes or removes them.

While I am speaking of diplomatists, I cannot forbear giving you a short sketch of one, whose weight in the scale of politics entitles him to particular notice: I mean the Count de Haugwitz, insidiously complimented by Talleyrand, with the title of "The Prince of Neutrality, the Sully of Prussia." Christian Henry Curce, Count de Haugwitz, who, until lately, has been the chief director of the political conscience of his Prussian Majesty, as his minister of the foreign department, was born in Silesia, and is the son of a nobleman, who was a General in the Austrian service, when Frederick the Great made the conquest of that country. At the death of this King, in 1786, Count de Haugwitz occupied an inferior place in the foreign office, where Count

de Hertzberg observed his zeal and assiduity, and recommended him to the notice of the late King, Frederick William II. By the interest of the celebrated Beshopswerder, he procured, in 1792, the appointment of an ambassador to the court of Vienna, where he succeeded Baron de Jacobi, the present Prussian minister in your country. In the autumn of the same year he went to Ratisbon, to co-operate with the Austrian ambassador, and to persuade the Princes of the German empire to join the coalition against France. In the month of March, 1794, he was sent to the Hague, where he negotiated with Lord Malmesbury concerning the affairs of France; shortly afterwards his nomination as a minister of state took place; and from that time his political sentiments seem to have undergone a revolution, for which it is not easy to account; but, whatever were the causes of his change of opinions, the treaty of Basle, concluded between France and Prussia, in 1795, was certainly negotiated under his auspices; and in August, 1796, he signed, with the French minister at Berlin, citizen Caillard, the first and famous treaty of neutrality; and a Prussian cordon was accordingly drawn, to cause the neutrality of the North to be observed and protected. Had the Count de Haugwitz, of 1795, been the same as the Count de Haugwitz of 1792, it is probable we should no longer have heard of either a French republic, or a French empire; but a legitimate Monarch of the kingdom of France would have insured that security to all other legitimate Sovereigns, the want of which they themselves, or their children, will feel and mourn in vain, as long as unlimited usurpations tyrannize over my wretched country. It is to be hoped, however, that the good sense of the Count will point out to him, before it is too late, the impolicy of his present connections; and that he will use his interest with his Prince, to persuade him to adopt a line of conduct suited to the grandeur and dignity of the Prussian monarchy, and favourable to the independence of insulted Europe.

When his present Prussian Majesty succeeded to the throne, Count de Haugwitz continued in office, with increased influence; but he some time since resigned, in consequence, it is said, of a difference of opinion with the other Prussian ministers, on the subject of a family alliance, which Buonaparte had the modesty to

propose between the idustrious house of Napoleone the First and the royal line of Brandenburgh.

On this occasion, his King, to evince his satisfaction with his past conduct, bestowed on him not only a large pension, but an estate in Silesia, where he before posscssed some property. Buonaparte, also, to express his regret at his retreat, proclaimed his Excellency a grand officer of the Legion of Honour.

Talleyrand insolently calls the several cordons, or ribands, distributed by Buonaparte among the Prussian ministers and generals, "his leading-strings." It is to be hoped, that Frederick William III. is sufficiently upon his guard, to prevent these strings from strangling the Prussian Monarchy and the Brandenburgh Dynasty.

MY LORD,

LETTER XVI.

Paris, August, 1805.

UPWARDS of two months after my visit to General Murat, I was surprised at the appearance of M. Darjuson, the chamberlain of Princess Louis Buonaparte. He told me that he came on the part of Prince Louis, who honoured me with an invitation to dine with him the day after. Upon my inquiry, whether he knew if the party would be very numerous, he answered, between forty and fifty, and that it was a kind of farewel dinner; because the Prince intended shortly to set out for Compeigne, to assume the command of the camp formed in its vicinity, of the dragoons and other light troops of the army of England.

The principal personages present at this dinner were Joseph Buonaparte, and his wife; General and Madame Murat; the Ministers, Berthier, Talleyrand, Fouche, Chaptal, and Portalis. The conversation was entirely military, and chicfly related to the probable conquest or subjugation of Great Britian, and the probable consequence to mankind in general of such a great event. No difference of opinion was heard with regard to its immediate benefit to France, and gradual utility to all other nations; but Berthier seemed to apprehend, that before France could have time to organize this valuable conquest, she would be obliged to